Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-06-19


sursblc i'll TO all except the slaves them
selves
This class OF labor was so perfectly
suited to the low alluvial lands OF the
tidewatcr that each generation found
itself Weather than that which had
preceded it, and it WAS evident that
the limits between the mountains and
tie coast would soon be too narrow for
race which had colonized undcr a
charter that ran mp into the land to
the iarthest sea.
TO this reason was added tina. thirst
for adventure and that desire for glory
which il a characteristic of the people,
and Snottswcod and biz Knights Of the
Golden Horseshoe set out TO ride t.
the top Of the Blue Ridge, which. tlI
then, was the barrIcadc beyond which
no Saxon was known to have yenturod,
and from which it was supposed the
great lakes might be visible. They
found not "thc uuSaltcd seas, but the
fa.rcst valley on'tAis gooJly cartll
stretched before them and the Old
Dominion suddenly expanded from q
narrow province to land from whose
iccund womb commonwealth and peo-
rlcs have sprung in ineXhlu,tibie pro-
PrcsslCn.
BY strange destiny. almos, imme-
dat ~ succeeding this discovery, the
vitality Of the colony received an infu
sion of another element which became
in the sequel strong part Of that life
which in its development was the
southern civilization.
This element occupied this valley
and changed it from a huuting-ground
to II garden. The first settler, it is
said, came to it 10y an instinct rs i'm
pcrativc rs that which brought the
dove over the foaming waters to the ark
Of safety. 1t was not the dove. how
ever which came when John Lewis
settled in this valley, but an eagle, and
in his eyre he reared IA brood of young
whose talons have been ever ready to
tear the hearts of the enemies of the
South. Strange TO relate, he had been
forced to leave Ireland because he had
slain his landlord. who was attempting
to illegally evict him. 1t might have
occurred yesterday.
He was followed b. the McDowclls,
AlexandcTs, Prcstons, Grahams. Reds,
McLaughlans, Glasgows, Moores, Wal
laces, McCluers, Mathewses, Woods,
Campbells, Waddells, Greenlees, Bow
ycrs, andmany others whose descendants
have held the highest offices in the land
which their fortitude created, and who
have ever thrown on the side of prin-
ciple the courage. resolution, and 10y
atty with which they held ont for lib
erty and Professionalism in the green
land of Ulster whence they came.
II was sturdy strain which had
suddenly flung itself along the from
tier, and its effect has been plainly dis
cernable in the subsequent history Of
the old South. running a somewhat
sombre thread in the wool of its cIylli-
cation, but giving it a body which
it perhaps might otherwise not have
possessed.
A similar element, though Springing
from a different origin, held the from
tier in the other States.
Its force was not towards the east,
Mt towards the west ; not towards the
sea and the old country but towards
the mountains and the new ; and 10 its
energy was due the western settlement,
rs to the other aud older class was due
the eastern.
As the latter had created and opened
up the first tier OF States along thc set-
coast, so these new corners now crossed
the mountains. penetrated the dark
and bloody ground" and conquered
the second tier, hcwing out OF primeyal
forests and holding them alike against
Indians and British the States Of Ohio,
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and opening
up for the first time the possibility OF
great American continent.
NOT SHAREHOLDERS.
They were not shareholders to a great
extent. for they were frontiersmen,
who mainly performed their own work.
They were not generally connected
with the old families of the Piedmont
and Tidewater, for they had Ill large
part entered the State 10y her northern
boundary, or had been brought to take
up land under cabin rights, or had
come across the mountain barrier and
had cut their own way into the forests,
and they traced their lineage to Gale
DOMAIN stock. They were not bound to
them by the ties Of common religion,
for they repudiatcd the Anglican
Church, with Its hierarchy and mallg-
nant doctrines, as that Church had re-
pudiated them, and worshipped God
according to their own consciences " III
way agreeable to the principle, OF
their education.
Thus neither by interest, blood. nor
rt liCion were they connected with the
original settlers Of the southern colo
MES. and vet they were most distinctly
and irrcvOcably an integral part Of the
South and Of the southern civilization,
as the waters of the Missouri and the
upper Mississippi are said to flow sile
bv side for hundred miles, each dis
tinguishable vet both together ming,iny
to make the majestic Father of Waters
There was something potent in the
southern soil, which drew to it all who
once rested on its bosom without refe
renee TO race or class or station let
men hut once breathe the air Of the
South and they were theme forth south
eruers forever. So this rae q, against the
alurcments Of their own interest and
the appeals of the North, ml1e Ken
lucky and Tennessee southern States,
and infused a strong southern element
into the State of Ohio.
Steam had not been then invented,
and the infinite forces of electricity
were as yet unknown yet without these
two great civi,izers the southern spirit
bore the ensign Of the Anglo-SaXon
across the mountains and created this
American continent. Was this steril-
ity
There is another work which the
South may Justly claim. As it pushed
advance mp first against the French con
fines and then beyond, and made this
country English, 50 it preserved the
spirit of liberty pure and undefiled, and
established it as the guiding star OF the
American people forever.
| believe that this love OF liberty and
the subordination of everything else to
Il I / q L.. ia.